The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 09 Contributions to The Tatler, The Examiner, The Spectator, and The Intelligencer   By: Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

VOL. IX

GEORGE BELL & SONS LONDON: YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO. NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.

[Illustration: Jonathan Swift from the picture by Charles Jervas in the Bodlean Library Oxford ]

THE PROSE WORKS OF JONATHAN SWIFT, D.D.

EDITED BY TEMPLE SCOTT

VOL IX

CONTRIBUTIONS TO "THE TATLER," "THE EXAMINER," "THE SPECTATOR," AND "THE INTELLIGENCER"

LONDON GEORGE BELL AND SONS 1902

CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

INTRODUCTION

Swift has been styled the Prince of Journalists. Like most titles whose aim is to express in modern words the character and achievements of a man of a past age, this phrase is not of the happiest. Applied to so extraordinary a man as Jonathan Swift, it is both misleading and inadequate. At best it embodies but a half truth. It belongs to that class of phrases which, in emphasizing a particular side of the character, sacrifices truth to a superficial cleverness, and so does injustice to the character as a whole. The vogue such phrases obtain is thus the measure of the misunderstanding that is current; so that it often becomes necessary to receive them with caution and to test them with care.